70 Bangladesh fishermen held hostage by pirates
Some 70 Bangladeshi fishermen are being held hostage in the Bay of Bengal by pirates demanding thousands of dollars in ransom money, police said. The pirates hijacked eight trawlers at gunpoint on Wednesday. They then allowed a couple of fishermen to return to port in one of the boats with a ransom demand. The freed fishermen, who arrived back on Thursday, were given a mobile phone with which to contact the bandits and told their colleagues would be killed if they failed to return with the money, police inspector Abdul Kuddus told AFP.Full Story